A robotic head of bats capable of transmitting and detect ultrasound in the band of frequencies used by bats in the real world will give an important impetus to research in the field of echolocation. “Bat – Bot “, developed under the project CIRCE of the IST (Information Society Technologies) may also stir ears, technique often used by these animals to modulate the characteristics of the echo.
CIRCE developed the Bat-Bot to mimic more closely at the amazing qualities of echolocation in bats. “The sonar in water is an area controlled, but studies on a sonar air are much less advanced,” says dr. Herbert Parmesans, who heads the laboratory of active perception of the University of Antwerp and CIRCE coordinating the project. “Wherever roboticiens want to build an autonomous robot, they deal primarily the sonar, but they quickly encounter problems due to the nature too simplistic devices of commerce, and then spend the visual systems or laser. We hope that our research on the bat robotic systems will lead to more sophisticated sonar useful for robot navigation and other applications, “he says.
One of those potential applications could be identifying plants by echolocation. During development of the Bat-Bot, researchers have validated that different plants provided unique echo signatures. “We examined several species of plants and they could all be identified by echolocation reliable manner. However, the technique requires yet to be thorough,” says Peremans.
The manufacture of the robotic head was the primary aim of CIRCE, but the group has produced many useful results throughout the study. A partner of the project has developed a sensor broadband can convert sound energy into electrical energy and vice versa on a spectrum of 20 to 200 hertz. “There are approximately 700 species of bats use echolocation, and they use a wide range of frequencies. We needed a simple device that could operate across this range,” says Peremans.
The project has also enabled the study of nearly twenty species of bats and demonstrate that the shape of their ears varies greatly and a strong influence on their performance. This study could be used to improve the performance of existing sonar systems. “We were the first to establish a model high-resolution ears bats, which act as outposts. This is a result of which we are very proud of and we have thus been able to make a series of ears simplified nylon that we begin now to help us to characterize what their form affects the quality of reception, “says Peremans.
From Bat-Bot will now derive a number of new research projects, such as the European project CILIA, which starts in September and which will examine how the tiny hairs on insects, fish and in the cochlea of mammals such as bats – mice or humans can be used to extract information on the environment of the body. It is impossible to guess exactly future results of this research, but CIRCE’s work on plants and ears of bats show that the sonar air has a great potential.